Brotherhood
by Rainripple
Summary: Sanji knows theres got to be a reason for Law's difficult habits but he's not saying anything about it at the moment. Regardless, Sanji tries his best to help him because damn him if he didn't at least try something. The LawSan part of the chippy AU I'm writing.


Sanji was beginning to wonder if he had a magical sense of intuition or something like that because he really shouldn't be able to find people as elusive as Law in a matter of minutes.

Law's habit of isolating himself away in his room over the first few weeks he spent with them had suddenly taken a dramatic turn and now he went out for hours and sometimes didn't come back until the next day or so.

He really had been such a mystery to figure out ever since he'd banged on their door on that stormy night, begging for shelter. One day he locked himself in his room and refused to come out save for meals and the next day, he went out and didn't even bother telling them where he went.

As gruff as Zeff had seemed, Sanji could tell he was getting concerned about what Law was doing because now he started getting Sanji to go out and find him, either to drag him back for a meal or to bring him something ("I told that boy to go get some vitamin D in him but I didn't mean for him to just go walkabout")

He would say that Zeff seemed surprisingly soft towards Law who had been rather anti-social in comparison but then that would get Sanji a kick in the shin so he kept the thoughts to himself.

It's not like it would have been too hard to find him though because there wasn't exactly a lot of places for a 16 year old to hang out in. A rather tall, skinny 16 year old to be exact.

Sanji found him on the swings in the park down the road. Of course he was only there because it was nighttime and there wasn't any kids around disturbing him. The swing was swaying rather half-heartedly, his shoes scuffing the dirt from time to time.

Sanji was tempted to make him use that swing properly and not look so melancholy but he was rather reluctant to possibly make him any moodier than he already was (Law was practically acting like a mute recluse already and making him irritated was hardly going to make the situation better).

He let himself drop onto the swing beside him. Law's eyes glanced at him before looking back at the stars (well what stars could be seen, Rochdale wasn't exactly the least polluted town in the country).

"Hey."

"...Hey."

Sanji shoved the tupperware box he had onto Law's lap. "I made onigiri."

Law blinked at it and then looked back at Sanji. "You really don't have to do this you know."

"Well tough. Deal with it. Eat it or scram."

Law narrowed his eyes at him before shrugging and starting to tuck in to the rice balls. No matter how hard he tried to remain reserved, the fact that he couldn't resist eating some of Zeff and Sanji's food amused him to no end.

He poked him in the side. "Look at you, you're like a stick."

"Well thanks for pointing out the obvious," Law grumbled.

Sanji leaned over to him and pinched his cheeks. "You shouldn't keep starving yourself like this, it's not healthy. You're gonna be a skinny stick for life if you keep this up."

Law finished off the riceballs he was eating and gave the box back to Sanji. "Thanks."

Sanji shrugged. "No problem. It'd be better if you came home more often to be honest but whatever."

He was about to walk away when Law murmured, "I was planning on leaving."

Sanji stopped. "How come?"

Law sighed. "S'not really much point of me hanging around. I'm not contributing anything and really I was only staying while I was hiding from," he shuddered, " _them_."

Sanji didn't really know who _them_ was but he continued listening since this was about the most he'd heard Law say in a while.

"I don't really fit in your place anyway, there's not much room and I can see it'd probably be much better if I packed up and left you two alone." He paused. "I'm sorry for using you and Zeff and I'm aware I've hardly been the most friendly guest. I don't really have any excuse."

That appeared to be the end of the conversation (at least for Law) and there was another pause that was only punctuated by the sound of Law's shoes scuffing the ground and cars passing by before Sanji turned around to hit him on the head with the box.

It earned him a rather bewildered expression from Law and he just tutted because _holy jesus fucking christ_ he had this the complete wrong way round.

"Your stupidity astounds me Trafalgar," Sanji said before he proceeded to rant. "I won't lie, you _have_ been a rather awkward pain in the ass. You've been super hard to figure out because A) you're as fucking silent as a mime and won't fucking talk to us so we have no idea what's wrong. B) We hardly see you because you're either cooped up in your room or you're out goodness knows where. C), well I could go on but I'm not gonna because the point is not that you're difficult so we want to kick you out. It's that you're with us now so you're gonna stick with us and that means _you need to rely on us more_."

Law opened his mouth to say something and then stopped and frowned.

"It's not a hard concept. We're not expecting you to spill all your darkest secrets now or ever. I'm just saying maybe it wouldn't hurt to let us help you."

"Er, well-"

"Also you should talk more because you have a really fucking nice voice and it'd be a shame if you didn't use it more often. You're more attractive when you're snarking people rather than being a moody lil shit." He blushed a little when he realised he'd complimented him and stepped back to cough awkwardly. "There, now I'm done ranting. Do whatever you like, I don't care. I just wanted to give you my two cents."

Law was just staring at him and Sanji was wondering what he'd done wrong before Law's lips curled up into a smirk which ended up as a laugh.

"See, _that_ wasn't so hard was it?"

"Hah hah, no I suppose it wasn't." Law was still sniggering at him. "It's funny how you act all tough and stuff but really you're just a big softie on the inside."

"Hmph." Sanji shrugged to hide his annoyance at being figured out.

Law idly kicked his feet to and fro, making the chains of the swing creak as he swung a little harder on it. Sanji came behind him to push him a bit more. "I'll try but it's going to be hard to open up. Old habits die hard after all."

"That's the whole point. As long as you try it's fine. Just don't go out of your comfort zone so much that you end up digressing."

Law chuckled as Sanji began to push his swing harder, his long gangly legs stretching out in front of him when he reached his highest point. "You sure you'll be able to cope with an extra person in that tiny flat of yours?"

"Ah yeah sure, if worse comes to worse, we can just fold you up and put you in a suitcase."


End file.
